Screens!
We're set to deploy our first developer blog post soon™! In it, Arma 3 Project Lead, Dan Musil, sets out our plans for 2012 and talks about recent developments.
 
In the mean time, we just couldn't resist leaking a little preview of the upcoming new screens, along with a juicy quotation:
 
"The scale of the map truly cannot be comprehended from the screenshots... it is HUGE, vastly beyond anything seen previously. Last, but certainly not least, we are committed to delivering you a slick and rock-solid multiplayer experience."
 
You can expect a bunch of splendid new info and hi-res screenshots... soon™!

After several months of radio silence - packed full of development and hard work - I'd like to outline some of our plans for 2012. It's been extremely rewarding to see how well things are moving forward, and, over the forthcoming year, we would like to share our progress with you on a more regular basis.
 
Recently, many new faces - from both other Bohemia Interactive studios and outside our company - have joined our team, which has significantly strengthened our development as a whole. It makes Arma 3 the largest ever project undertaken by Bohemia Interactive. Their experience, enthusiasm and excitement has been a welcome addition and is already paying back major dividends. An official 'welcome to the war', guys!
 
Looking forward, this year we're proudly showcasing our work at both E3 (June 5-7) and Gamescom Cologne (August 16-19). If you have the time, please come along and meet us to experience what we've managed to achieve so far, and get a sense of what's still to come. Of course, we'll set out more detailed information about our attendance closer to the time.
 
Rolling Through :: Light wooded areas are the perfect place for an ambush! Rapid Insertion :: Operators coming into land amid the new Aegean vegetation Taking a Break :: The enemy patrol taking a rest, bathed in the headlamps of improved lighting technology!
 
Following E3, we plan to open up the game to our players. This process starts with the release of a playable build of Arma 3. We call it the 'Community Alpha'. It's intended to enable people who'd like to try the game early on in development help us to shape it up - and make Arma 3 the greatest release of the series. Ours is a large and complex game - being developed by a relatively small team - so we really appreciate your opinions, thoughts and feedback.
 
[B]The Community Alpha will be quite limited in terms of the assets it includes, with the goal of providing enough content to experiment with the brand new bits of gameplay and technology. It also enables our passionate community to prepare their mods for the very latest version of the Real Virtuality engine. Then, later on in the year, we'd like to open up our game up even further with a more extensive beta program. The exact details, however, we intend to set out closer to their launch.[/B]
 
As you may have recently picked up on, we plan to delay the full Arma 3 release. With this additional time, we're focused upon creating a feature-rich, polished, and bug free experience. For us, it all comes down to delivering a quality product. We've achieved a great deal, but we don't want to rush things at the expense of what we finally deliver.
 
DirectX 10/11 has been implemented. PhysX is working - particularly, rag-doll animation looks really impressive! The UI is undergoing a redesign, with the focus upon improved usability. Indeed, ease of use, and particularly accessibility, has been an entire goal in itself. We've heard your feedback, and we want to make the game easier to learn for those new to the game, without sacrificing anything that makes our game unique. We have reworked our animations using completely new motion capture recordings. The result is the most realistic animations ever achieved in the series, as well as additional gameplay features.
 
The visuals and graphics, such as color, lighting, and effects - are quite breathtaking and a massive leap forward for the series. The scale of the map truly cannot be comprehended from the screenshots... it is HUGE, vastly beyond anything seen previously. Last, but certainly not least, we are committed to delivering you a slick and rock-solid multiplayer experience. You can already experience some of the low-level fixes and optimisations brought about by the major release of Patch 1.60 for Arma 2 Operation Arrowhead, and Multiplayer will be something we're keen to talk about as development continues.
 
Making a silent approach :: The assault is made easier with the new chemlight illuminations Behind the Wheel :: Working mirrors and the video feed give more environmental awareness Coming In Fast! :: A fixed-wing aircraft dives down towards the Aegean Sea
 
We have adhered to a strong focus upon backward compatibility throughout the development, meaning we (and of course even you) are in a position to get older assets into A3 very quickly, just with few tweaks here and there. There are, of course, the new features which would require additional settings.
 
Looking at our previous work, the fidelity of the British Armed Forces units was the foundation for work on character models in Arma 3, which are of a quality far surpassing what we've created before. While technologies like shotgun dispersal in Private Military Company helped to provide a platform for the implementation of things like mines and explosives in A3. Take On Helicopters, meanwhile, goes from strength to strength with recent updates and the forthcoming 'Cougar' patch and Hind DLC. Various new technologies at work in Arma 3 - like volumetric clouds - are on display in this game, and of course, we'd recommend to take a look at all of these great games to get a flavour of what's yet to come.
 
I'm really looking forward to sharing with you the results of our development. To kick things off, we're in the process of putting together a couple of developer's blogposts starting with sound recordings and our field trip to Limnos. You can see the brand new screenshots we've made available, which give a flavour of the developments we're making. Nothing is more rewarding for us than working and getting involved with people from the community who are as excited about the game as we are. I look forward to keeping you informed about our development as often as possible!

Q&A
 
PCG: When will the Community Alpha be available?
 
Daniel Musil, A3 Project Lead: The exact date will be announced following E3, but it should follow a month or so later. It depends on a number of internal and external developments.
Jay Crowe, Creative Director: Once we manage to shake off the jet-lag from LA—wash off that conference-hall smell—we intend to set out what’s on offer and how we’ll be inviting people to get involved in much greater detail.
 
How many people do you expect to participate in the Community Alpha?
 
Jay Crowe, Creative Director: Well, we’re talking about an alpha build of the game. We accept that it’s not something that those with only a passing interest would get involved in. Rather, we’d expect that our community will be the driving force behind this initial offering, at least.
 
Musil: We have no limits, though – anyone interested is welcome! This will be an iterative process and we will appreciate any proper feedback. If we took a guess, there could be thousands.
 
Crowe: You only need to look at the success and popularity of similar alpha releases to see that, if it begins to gain momentum, such previews can generate large numbers of really passionate players.
 
During the Community Alpha, what aspects of the game is Bohemia going to be most interested in receiving feedback on?
 
Musil: We’re especially interested in the new technologies running on the broad range of hardware out there. In regard to our large, open world there is always lots of aspects to tune. Also, the new scripting frameworks are very flexible but relatively new.
 
Crowe: Yes, a very recent beta patch for Take On Helicopters added support for Java in the RV engine. Long term, its being considered as a replacement for our proprietary scripting language, but—at least for TKOH and A3—they’ll operate side by side. We hope that once the Community Alpha is in place, modders will be able to explore the possibilities – and identify any pesky limitations – of this exciting new feature.
 
Musil: Overall, we’d expect quite general feedback to the game, which we’ll then evaluate and seek to shape it up alongside our customers needs.
 
Crowe: Although we can get into details later, one option is to stagger the release of new engine features. In this way, we might focus upon a particular aspect and garner useful feedback. For example, one week after the Community Alpha launch, we might drop in the scuba guys or enable physics on vehicles, listening carefully to the feedback on how these systems perform.
 
Musil: We’re not seeking overly specific feedback—I mean a missing screw here and there, it’s fundamentally our job to retain the quality of our game – the goal is to identify and neutralise important stability issues, across the big range of hardware combinations our there.
 
The blog post references a delay. Are you delaying Arma 3 further than Holiday 2012?
 
Crowe: Yes, we’ve pushed back our full release, which originally stood as Summer 2012. Although, with the Community Alpha, many people will still get to enjoy their first experience with a playable build of Arma 3 very soon. This iterative model of development—sharing a public preview build—is becoming more and more widespread on the indie scene. Arma 3 is a big game. It’s packed with a lot of complex new features. This Community Preview enables us, as a relatively small team, to spend more time polishing and improving it ahead of a full, retail launch. Take On Helicopters was a step in the right direction, but, we can always do more to improve day one stability.
 
Does Bohemia believe that Arma 3 will be one of the PC’s most-demanding games when it releases? Are you worried about that?
 
Musil: We consider the Real Virtuality engine to be more like a platform than a game. Our community has used it for a much longer period than is perhaps usual for the most modern games. It’s why we’re scaling the rendering quality and the whole engine to fit both current machines and also high-end desktops in the near feature. At higher settings, there is usually more to compute and render—longer view distance, better quality further in the scene, denser and more extensive particles, multiple shader-based effects, and so on. Generally, we would like to allow users to always set the best quality regardless of hardware performance, which we achieve with our powerful range of video options.
 
What’s a weapon or vehicle in A3 that’s exciting to you right now?
 
Musil: For me, it’s the Gepárd GM-6 Lynx. An impressive and modern anti-material weapon we had a chance to try ourselves. Makes me respect it both visually and when putting fire down-range. There will be another devlog about this recording, including some behind the scenes stuff.
 
Crowe: Well, I might just be a little biased from the last project, but right now it’s the Mi-48 Helicopter Gunship. Our community christened it the “Hamok.” It’s big and it’s ugly and it’s all the better for that!
 
Musil: Honestly, though—although it might sound a little staged—the best weapon for me is new lighting model, which I like very much personally. Visually, it’s a big step up from our previous games. I hope this weapon will be great help for promoting our game.

Updates!
This week we're set up update our official website with the very latest information about the Arma 3 campaign.
 
Ahead of that, here's a quick peek at the background and history of Limnos:
 
"Amid the events of 2033, the island was defended by a weakened contingent of the Hellenic Air Force and Army - elements of which successfully repelled Iranian attacks for several weeks - before succumbing to occupation by the Iranian Armed Forces.
 
In the weeks and months following the Jerusalem Peace Accord of 2034, which crystallised Iran's position in the Aegean, a small group of Greek forces established a resistance movement, covertly backed by the United States and Great Britain."

Storyline:
After years of intense warfare against Eastern armies, Europe has become the last stand for the battered NATO forces. On the verge of being driven into the sea, NATO command embarks upon a most desperate measure. In the hope of seizing what seems to be a well-guarded military secret, Operation Magnitude is launched.
A small group of Special Forces and Researchers are sent to a Mediterranean island deep behind enemy lines. However, the mission is compromised and the task force destroyed, leaving Cpt. Scott Miller washed ashore upon the hostile island. In his effort to carry out the mission, he will face the dangers of modern warfare, an unforgiving environment, and the consequences of his own decisions…